CONTROL OF ALCOHOL TOLERANCE BY REINFORCEMENT IN NON-ALCOHOLICS

The development of tolerance to alcohol was examined in 2 experiments with nonalcoholic drinkers. In both experiments, male undergraduates received pretraining on a pursuit rotor task and were then randomly assigned to either alcohol or placebo conditions. In the 1st experiment, monetary and performance feedback reinforcement for pursuit rotor performance were provided to both groups over 4 drinking sessions. In the 2nd experiment, 2 final drinking sessions were added where no reinforcement was provided to either the alcohol or placebo subjects, and an additional alcohol group received no reinforcement throughout the 6 drinking sessions. Tolerance to the impairing effects of alcohol on pursuit rotor performance developed only for the reinforced alcohol subjects; withdrawal of reinforcement from tolerant subjects resulted in a return of impaired performance, i.e., tolerance was extinguished. Impairment remained consistently high in the non-reinforced alcohol subjects throughout all 6 drinking sessions. The results provide support for the learning hypothesis of behavioral tolerance by demonstrating that its acquisition and extinction may be controlled by reinforcement.